Village body in Keonjhar says no to Sterlite

Keonjhar, August 24 (Odisha.in) Residents of a village in Orissa’s Keonjhar district Friday refused to allow the Sterlite Iron and Steel Company to set up its plant in their region.

The Sterlite group had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) three years ago with the Orissa Government for setting up a five million tonne steel plant in this district.

The residents organized a gam sabha at Gopinathpur , one of the villages to be affected by the proposed plant and decided not to give up their land. Local Sarapanch Rai Suan presided over the meeting.

The district Collector Bipin Bihari Mohapatra, Additional district magistrate Bijaya Kumar Bilung, Additonal superintendent of police Nigamananda Tripathy and other district official were present in the village when the meeting was on.

As many as 66 policemen were deployed in the village anticipating law and order situation.

Our area is fertile and we grow not only paddy crops we also grow vegetables. The project will ruin our economic conditions, a village leader said in the meeting.

The 5.1 million projects would need 2,160.89 acres of private and 1,217.18 acre of government land.